Four White Ohio teenagers are FREE after pleading guilty to "murdering" a 22 year old Black father. The teens plead guilty to dropping a sandbag from a highway overpass last December, killing 22 year old Marquis Bird. All four teens were given suspended sentences, a judge announced Friday.
The boys, ages 13 and 14, were instead ordered to a youth center for treatment. All four boys are Caucasian, the victim is Black.
Marquise Byrd, a father of a two year old son, died in a Toledo, Ohio hospital on December 29, three days after four teenage boys tossed a heavy sandbag onto Interstate 75 striking the car Marquise was traveling in.
Marquise was sitting in the passenger's seat when the sandbag crashed through the windshield hitting him in the head. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition but died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck.
The teen who dropped the sandbag pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to the Department of Youth Services until he turns 21. The other three teens pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to three years at the the same facility.
But a judge found that the teens deserved to be FREE. Judge Denise Navarre Cubbon said Friday that all four sentences were suspended in favor of the teens being sent to Toledo's Lucas County Youth Treatment Center. 'It's a treatment facility, for certain services, to provide so these boys change their behavior and can become productive members of our community,' she said.
There will be more to hear from this story we are sure, so stay tuned as the fate of these boys and the Byrd family plays out. What do you think though? Should the teens have the book thrown at them?
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